


Greenland and Other Conquests

by handschuhmaus



Series: the Scientist With the Dragon Tattoos [1]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - How to Train Your Dragon Fusion, Alternate Universe - No Kaiju, Asexual Newt, Multi, Ohio, Trans Newton Geiszler, bed sharing, for a fic ostensibly about dragons they don't show up very quickly, ignores Pacific Rim: Uprising, not actually set in Greenland, update schedule slow and uncertain
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-21 11:29:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21298739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handschuhmaus/pseuds/handschuhmaus
Summary: Hope, they say, is a thing with wings.And there are other things with wings: if you go to an island in the north, you might just see one.Newt runs into his erstwhile penpal while on a sort of vacation. That alone suggests some kind of fate. That Herman, too, believes in the dragons, or at least the potentiality thereof, well--it feels like getting enfolded in dragon wings.
Relationships: Hermann Gottlieb/Vanessa Gottlieb, Newton Geiszler/Hermann Gottlieb, Newton Geiszler/Hermann Gottlieb/Vanessa Gottlieb
Series: the Scientist With the Dragon Tattoos [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1535984
Kudos: 1





	Greenland and Other Conquests

Meeting on a boardwalk. Okay, that sounded either like some sort of Jersey beach scene with neon lights and insistent carnival music (...a little like "Sam's Town", maybe?) or some sort of weird Monopoly thing, and the board gaming group thing just... really hadn't worked out. 

Also, it probably wasn't even him! Their messages had been sporadic over the last five years, after Hermann didn't invite him to his wedding, which... So, partly it felt like a rebuff because the wedding was in Bavaria (naturally) and Newt _had_ actually been in Europe at the time--yes, actually one of his one time conspirators on an experiment had insisted he go to a füßball match in Barcelona so he was in Spain on the day of, but he would have cut that short any time for Hermann's sake, trains and everything in Europe--but also he hadn't really dealt with how Nessa would probably think the fact that he definitely had a squash on Hermann was some kind of emotional infidelity on his part and... That train of thought led nowhere good.

But the guy standing on the boardwalk, in a very lovely sweater, with two small kids (eyes transfixed on a duck), a stroller, and a cane, looked a lot like Hermann Gottlieb.

All the same, Newt had been going to walk past him when the man in the sweater said, his voice quiet and a bit thick with hesitance "Excuse me--I don't mean to pry, I may be mistaken, but are you Newton Geisler?" 

"Hermann?!" Newt asked in excitement.

The physicist's excitement was more subdued, but there was more fondness in his voice than Newt expected, their previous communications having been online text and their physical forms and presumably voices only known through occasional selfies and video of academic presentations. "Newt," he said.

Before their reunion could proceed any further, the older child pointed a finger at a distant water bird, which Newt thought might be a blue heron (but he hadn't brushed up on local birds, either--why hadn't he, when birds were dinosaurs were practically except not reptiles?!), saying "Vatti, was ist das?" 

"Ich weiß nicht," Hermann said, with a light but pleasant Bavarian accent. "Wissen Sie?" he asked Newt, voice tinged with hope.

"Uh, _duzen_ mir, bitte!" he protested, and then answered, his first language awkward and stilted from lack of use, "Ich weiß nicht, wie es auf Deutsch genennt ist, aber ich glaube, dass auf Englisch, es ein 'blue heron' ist." He hadn't known Hermann was speaking German with the kids.

Strangely, this had attracted stares from the two other adults on said boardwalk, a trail through coastal wetlands in Maumee Bay State Park. The white woman (well, almost definitely--and she was probably about middle aged and this didn't seem like a hotspot for nonbinary people, though you never knew) looked...yeah, disgusted, and Newt wasn't sure whether she was one of those "speak English!" people or if she'd pegged it as German and supposed for instance that they might be plotting war or other unsavory things. But she was also nearly out of earshot, and Newt figured that if it was the former, she might not appreciate most of his salient features, least of all his dragon tattoos, so he wouldn't try to explain. The other look was definitely more concerned, and Newt wasn't sure if he was imagining a little wistfulness into it as well. But then he didn't think a young Middle-Eastern looking guy who was wearing a very small baby and what might well be a diaper backpack (if the print of small woodland animals was anything to go by) would be upset purely by hearing another language. Somehow the possibility that he was worried about them being the bad kind of Odin...ists? devotees? seemed more likely than with the woman. Also he was still walking towards them.

Newt decided to, hopefully, defuse some of the tension there, all while this would be awkward, and so turned and waved and said, not _too_ loudly "Hi! You have an adorable baby there."

"...yes," Hermann agreed after a moment, with more reserve, "Hello."

The other trail user gained a half-smile--they seemed to have successfully suggested that they probably didn't harbor active and rampant ill-will--and said quietly, "Thanks. He is sleeping."

Newt nodded reflexively, and Hermann, also hushed, remarked pointedly, "Speaking of sleep, I know someone else who could use some," and the smaller child grabbed his hand and yawned, despite pouting about it. 

"We'll have to be going, soon," Hermann said a few quiet minutes later, once they were alone again and a wind blew through the trees. "Rose does need a nap. But please, Newt--message me again. I've missed you."

* * *

"I'm sorry...sir," (and Newt didn't appreciate the hesitance right now) "there was a error on the website and they allowed booking of rooms we don't have available. You will receive a full refund if you already paid, but we cannot honor your reservation. I could direct you to another hotel in the area. We can also offer you a voucher for a free two-night stay at one of our hotels on another occasion..."

Shit! He should have checked in _before_ exploring, and it was getting dark and so now of course anxiety was closing in... "But ...what happened?" he asked, without much enthusiasm

The clerk sighed. "We think there was a bug in the website that offered ten times as many rooms as we meant to pull from availability after getting a big reservation."

"Oof. So, uh, about the other hotels..." Newt tried to sound less anxious and more smooth than he really felt.

But before the clerk could say, someone hissed his name "Newton! Dr. Geisler!" 

"Hermann? What are you doing here?" Dr. Gottlieb had appeared from the hallway in the interior of the hotel.

"Are you staying here?" Hermann asked, proceeding to close most of the meters between them and approach the check-in desk.

Newton admitted, "Well, apparently not, because there was an overbooking issue, I guess."

"Hmmm. Maybe--maybe you should stay with us."

"But I can't, dude, I mean, I don't want to interrupt your vacation, or intrude with you and Nessa--"

"Nessa isn't here. I mean, there was a death in her family, and she had to fly out to attend the funeral. There were...sensitive issues in her aunt's family that the girls don't need, and we already knew I needed a rest more like this one, rather than family arguments when I never met the person in question." Hermann admitted, with unusual openness, especially in front of the desk clerk. It seemed kind of like he'd plunged forward in the necessary explanation, having decided spontaneously to open his hotel room to Newt.

"Won't that be...awkward?" Newt had to ask.

"Not more so than your not having a room." Hermann paused briefly before carrying on "We're not staying here--we enlisted Vanessa's old roommate away from her fishing retreat to babysit the girls for a few hours so... I can relax a little more and... frankly, have a bath. I'm not used to single parenting for days on end. So it isn't selfless--if you're willing to keep an eye on the girls some so I'm not trying to dress in less than five minutes, it would be a great help to me."

"Oh. Sure," Newt barely knew the kids, but he could probably get along with them if he wasn't supposed to supervise them for hours on end. "Yeah, that would save me tracking down another room, at least for tonight."

"Sorry! Hope you enjoy your time around here regardless!" The clerk said, a little awkwardly, at Newt. Hermann colored, probably at the reminder that he had discussed private information

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <strike>I have so many ideas, and so little persistence in writing them through</strike>


End file.
